I want to drink life to the dregs, to enlarge myself to the absolute limits of my being - and to strive for a society in which everyone -regardless of race, creed, color and especially religious conviction - has the same exhilarating raison d'รชtre, and the same opportunity to fulfill it.
Madalyn Murray O'HairAtheists have an excellent longevity record because we have no place to go after we die, so we take good care of ourselves and our world while we are here.
Madalyn Murray O'HairLegality can't create love if it isn't there, or preserve it if it's dying, but it can destroy love by making it compulsory.
Madalyn Murray O'HairBut the most heinous crime of the Church has been perpetrated not against churchmen but against churchgoers. With its poisonous concepts of sin and divine punishment, it's warped and brainwashed countless millions. It would be impossible to calculate the psychic damage this has inflicted on generations of children who might have grown up into healthy, happy. productive, zestful human beings but for the burden of antisexual fear and guilt ingrained in them by the Church. This alone is enough to condemn religion.
Madalyn Murray O'HairI'm atheist because religion is a crutch, and only the crippled need crutches. I can get around perfectly well on my own two feet, and so can everyone else with a backbone and a grain of common sense.
Madalyn Murray O'HairLate one night our house was attacked with stones and bricks by five or six young Christians, and my father got very upset and frightened. Well, the next day he dropped dead of a heart attack. The community knew very well that he had a heart condition, so I lay a murder to the city of Baltimore.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair